News Posts

Living harvestmen—a group of arachnids commonly known as daddy longlegs—have a single pair of eyes. But a newly described 305-million-year-old fossil found in eastern France shows that wasn’t always the case.

The powerful venom of the Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum), which is featured as one of the live species in The Power of Poison, has medicinal capabilities as well: one of its components has been used to develop a diabetes drug.

New research on the skulls of red pandas and giant pandas provides further explanation as to why the two species—which are not closely related but dine on the same food, bamboo, in the same geographic area—are able to coexist.

The elaborate-ness and size of pterosaurs’ crest peaked in species that lived during the Late Cretaceous period—from about 100 to 66 million years ago, after which pterosaurs became extinct. Watch a video about pterosaur crests to learn more.